


115. bubblegum lips

by piggy09



Series: The Sestre Daily Drabble Project [56]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Gen, THAT'S RIGHT THROWBACK TO SEASON 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-10 21:27:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7861717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piggy09/pseuds/piggy09
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Stop following me,” Sarah says, voice weak. “Get the hell away from me.”</p><p>Instead of answering, Helena holds out her hand. It’s full of gumballs – the cheap shitty kind you get from those big red machines. She’s been holding them for a while, looks like; they’ve bled color all over her hand, red and green and blue and red.</p>
            </blockquote>





	115. bubblegum lips

When Sarah steps out of Beth’s apartment Helena is sitting on the front steps, chewing bubblegum. All Sarah can see is her huge green parka, the tangled mane of blonde hair. As soon as Sarah’s feet hit the ground outside the door Helena twists her neck around to look at her; a bubble between her lips grows bigger-bigger-bigger-POP!, like a gunshot. Sarah jumps.

“Stop following me,” she says, voice weak. “Get the hell away from me.”

Instead of answering, Helena holds out her hand. It’s full of gumballs – the cheap shitty kind you get from those big red machines. She’s been holding them for a while, looks like; they’ve bled color all over her hand, red and green and blue and red.

“I don’t want gum,” Sarah says slowly. Maybe it’s an English thing. She really hopes it’s an English thing. “Go… _away_.”

Helena blows another bubble, and then abruptly stuffs three more gumballs into her mouth at once. She wipes her hand on her pants and resumes staring at the people walking by the townhouse. People keep staring – no wonder they keep staring, Beth and her homeless twin sister hanging out outside her door. Helena blows an enormous warped bubble made of two or three different colors. It explodes. Gum gets in her hair, but she doesn’t seem particularly concerned about it.

Well, now what. Sarah tries just…stepping around her. Helena shoots up ( _shoots_ up) suddenly, hands in her pockets. Her jaws make wet smacking sounds as she chews. They’re the same height. Of course they are, but—

“Are you gonna kill me,” Sarah says, voice shaky.

Helena shakes her head. “I wanted to see you again,” she says easily, though the light tone is ruined by the way the massive amount of gum distorts her words.

“Well, you saw me,” Sarah says. “You can – run back to your masters now, yeah?” Her voice wavers. She’s still thinking about it, the rebar. How vividly you can not want to die.

Helena tilts her head to the side, frowns. She blows another damn bubble. POP! and it’s gone. She shoves the wad of gum into her cheeks, like a chipmunk. “No,” she says softly. “I said. That you aren’t like the others. I’m supposed to find out what you know.”

She pauses.

“What’s your name?”

Another one of Beth’s neighbors walks by, does a double-take. Sarah bites her lip hard and debates the merits of having this conversation out on the porch instead of—

She sighs, short and sharp, runs a panicked hand through her hair. Steps back. Opens the door. “In,” she says curtly.

Helena’s mouth droops open and Sarah can see the enormous mass of drool-soaked gum against the wall of her mouth. _Gross_. But then Helena’s mouth snaps shut again and she dances around Sarah to inside.

“This is nice,” she says, evidently distracted. “This is a nice apartment. Did you steal it from Beth?”

“Helena,” Sarah says coaxingly. “Who are you working for? Why are you killing us?”

Helena blows another bubble. She has wandered over to the fridge – because of course she has – and pokes at one of the photos lightly. “That’s not you,” she says. “That’s Detective Childs, isn’t it. She smiles more than you do.” Helena shoots a smirk her way, dark in a way that is frightening and sudden as a knifeblade. Sarah had – forgotten.

“Yeah, that’s Beth,” Sarah says. She folds her arms over her chest.

“And that’s her boyfriend,” Helena says, and suddenly she isn’t dangerous anymore – just a kid with a mouth full of bubblegum, jabbing a finger at a different photograph.

Sarah doesn’t say anything. That is clearly a space where Helena should provide information, but she seems content not to. When she reaches for the handle of the fridge Sarah says “No.” Her voice is very firm; Helena’s hand jumps back from the handle, like it’s burned her.

“I’m hungry,” she says wistfully. Her head rolls on its neck. The gum is stretching one of her cheeks out full.

“Too bad,” Sarah says.

Helena sighs, melancholy, reaches out and rubs a fond thumb over one of the photographs. “You’re special,” she says, not looking away from the fridge. “The others are just copies.” She slides a photograph from under the magnet, looks at Sarah, and rips it in half. Beth is there until she is gone, cut straight down the middle.

“I don’t want to kill you,” she says.

“Then don’t.”

“Hm,” Helena says, and then spits out the gum. It’s an enormous blob in her hand. She stares at the gum, than the photograph, and then she smacks the gum onto the back of one half of Beth. She sticks them together, gives a wriggly little smirk at her handiwork, and then sticks the photograph with a wet _plop_ onto the fridge again.

“We’ll talk soon,” she says, and she sticks her hands in her pockets, and she walks out the door. Sarah watches the movement of her back until she’s gone; then she watches the photograph on the fridge start to slide, wetly, down the door. She watches and watches and watches until it hits the ground.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please kudos + comment if you enjoyed! :)


End file.
